[Ohio-talk] Refreshable Braille NFB Resolution being

[barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com]

I am joining this thread late because of being out of town. The digital machines were announced for 2008. this was Moore’s law at work, and it just took that long to get the research done, to bring the costs down, and to solve the other problems. Given that  2008 was the date, the fact that it was 2009 or 10 before the machines were available was not too bad an overrun in my view. The Orbit is much closer to development now than the digital machine ws when we began talking about it. I don’t know if it is the only low-cost display being developed. But it is close now, so it is not going to be too long till we could use the machines if they were paid for by Congress. 
Barbara Pierce 
President Emerita
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
Barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com
440-774-8077
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

> On Sep 13, 2017, at 11:30 AM, Marianne Denning via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I definitely think it is a great proposal. Sadly, it will probably be
> another 15 or 20 years before NLS provides Braille displays. Sadly, that is
> our government at work.
> 
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 11:05 AM, Paul Dressell via Ohio-Talk <
> ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>> This is a good resolution; what do you think?
>> Paul
>> Regarding the Distribution of Refreshable Braille Displays to Patrons of
>> the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
>> 
>> WHEREAS, there are currently 119,487 libraries of all types operating in
>> the United States, and of these only the National Library Service for the
>> Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is specifically tasked with
>> distributing Braille books across the nation; and
>> 
>> WHEREAS, the distribution of these Braille books by the NLS and a network
>> of cooperating regional libraries primarily occurs through the mailing of
>> hard-copy offerings, but new, low-cost devices (known as refreshable
>> Braille displays) can produce electronic Braille, saving money, saving
>> paper, and using a small electronic device instead of multiple and large
>> volumes for just one book; and
>> 
>> WHEREAS, in April of 2016 the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
>> recognized the potential that refreshable Braille displays offer to
>> increase the availability of Braille materials to NLS patrons, while
>> simultaneously saving the NLS approximately ten million dollars annually;
>> and
>> 
>> WHEREAS, in July of 2016 Congress affirmed the GAO’s findings by amending
>> the Pratt-Smoot Act, (2 U.S.C § 135a), to allow the NLS to “provide books
>> published either in raised characters, on sound-reproduction recordings, or
>> in any other form,” thereby opening the door for the NLS to distribute
>> refreshable Braille displays: Now, therefore,
>> 
>> BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
>> assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the city of Orlando,
>> Florida, that this organization call upon the United States Congress to
>> authorize a one-time appropriation of five million dollars to the National
>> Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which will enable
>> the NLS, through the bidding process, to purchase a minimum of ten thousand
>> low-cost refreshable Braille displays, jumpstarting the distribution of
>> these devices to the 11 percent of NLS patrons who are already accessing
>> the library’s electronic Braille files and increasing access to refreshable
>> Braille.
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
> Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
> (513) 607-6053
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